I updated my
lab VIOS to the latest fix pack (V2.2.2.1)
this week and thought I’d try the new VIOS part
command. This new command is an improved version of the existing vios_advisor tool. The major difference
between the two is the fact that the new tool is now included with VIOS code
and will be updated via new VIOS fix packs. The following link has some
information on using the command:

This new
tool “Provides performance reports with
suggestions for making configurational changes to the environment, and helps to
identify areas for further investigation. The reports are based on the key
performance metrics of various partition resources that are collected from the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS)
environment.” Just like the old VIOS advisor.

I ran the
tool for 10 minutes on my idle VIOS, just to see how the new XML report looked.

I then scp’ed the tar file to my
laptop, extracted it and opened the vios_advisor_report.xml
file. This is what the report looked like:

I was also able to open the nmon file using the nmon analyser tool. It produced typical
nmon performance graphs as you’d
expect.

So, not only does the new part tool run the VIOS advisor it also capturesnmon performance data at the same time.

This is rather impressive and a great
move by IBM. The original VIOS advisor tool was free and of course not
officially supported by IBM (although the development team were very responsive
to requests from users of the tool). The new tool is fully supported by the IBM
team and as a result will only get better and better as time goes by. I’m not a
fan of the new command name, part (good luck trying to google
it!), I still prefer vios_advisor
but hey, what’s in a name, right?